The first week

 

My school uniform

The first week has come and gone so fast. I am getting used to how everything works here.  The life and the climate are different. People are generally getting up very early and also going to bed earlier than we do it in Holland. If I have to go to school, I also get up around 6 o'clock in the morning.  At that time it is already light here, so it is not to difficult. We are  taken everywhere by car. Public transport is also not so common here than in Europe and the roads are quite busy in the rush hours.  It is so strange for a Dutch girl that I cannot just take my bike and ride somewhere myself.   Monday was a relaxed day. We went to pick my uniform and we looked around in Herschel. In my previous blog I already gave some information about the school to get an impression about this beautiful place. I also was introduced to the Principle. He was very kind to me . In the afternoon we were at home and enjoyed the swimming pool in the garden. I had lots of fun together with Jeff and Paulie, the brothers of Steff.

 

 

Enjoying the swimming pool

Tuesday was my first day at school.  I was a little bit nervous and I was awake before my alarm went off.  I heard so many things from Steff about the school, about her friends and teachers.  I did not know what I should expect.  This was the first day of school of the new year. Everybody was happy to see each other. A lot of students from Hershel were on exchange and their exchange partners arrived now from different countries. It was quite busy but very nice to meet so many people at the same time.  The Principle kept a new year's speech for the students and everybody sang the school song.  After that we sorted out our timetables.  I was introduced to Mrs. Stein,  who  is the coordinator of  about it.  The teachers were very kind, but it seemed to me that they are stricter than the Dutch teachers.  The behaviour of the students is similar to the students  in the Hungarian school. They are more respectful to the teacher,  they do not speak while the teacher is speaking  and you do not see mobile telephones during the lessons. When school was finished, we went to a big shopping centre nearby. It was very nice to have a drink there together with Steff and with her friends.

 

Swimming trial



Wednesday  was the first actual school day. I started to go my own lessons. Most of the time I am together with Maxime, because we almost have the same schedule. It is very good that the teachers have their own room so you always know where you have to go. After school we directly went home because Elise's sister Christine visited us from Johannesburg. I was happy to meet her and of course she told some things about this big city. I especially liked this because at the end of February I am going to have a long weekend in Johannesburg. I hope very much to see her there. Thursday  afternoon I had my swimming trials. It was quite hard, there are such a good swimmers in the Herschel team.  Luckily my time was quite good and I was really happy that I can practice with this competition team and I can even join next week to the "Swimming Gala".

 





Wonderful sushi

Friday we had a short day, lessons  finished at 13:00 p.m.  Steff suggested that we can have lunch in her favourite sushi restaurant. Emma, her friend, came along with us.  It was incredible how many different sushi's  the restaurant offered. We had a very pleasant afternoon there and we laughed a lot. Steff went to water-polo training and I went home. I had plenty of things to do this afternoon. But I was just so tired that I collapsed on the  couch and fell asleep.